Kevin Smith Received And Watched A Copy Of The 'Batman Forever' Schumacher Cut, So It Had Better Be Released Someday Soon
Yes folks, we may have another Zack Snyder-type situation on our hands at Warner Bros pertaining to their DC movie properties. Batman Forever director Joel Schumacher famously infamously took the Caped Crusader in a much campier direction in the 90s on the heels of Tim Burton's darker duology, but — 30 for 30 voice — what if I told you that wasn't the filmmaker's original intention?
Even with the studio encouraging/ordering Schumacher to brighten up the tone of this series of movies, the cut of Batman Forever that he led with was 170 minutes and was a lot darker. Kevin Smith's Fatman Beyond cohost Marc Bernardin sounded off (not in the video above) on what's in the Schumacher Cut and why it's essentially better, via World of Reel:
"I think that [the 170 minute version] went much deeper into his childhood psychosis and his mental blocks and that it was a more serious, darker version of that movie that was one of the first assemblies that Joel filed with the studio and they eventually cut it down because they were like 'it's too dark for kids. We gotta sell these Happy Meals, so maybe let's not invest ourselves in the trauma of childhood murder. We've got Jim Carrey, let him do some s--t."
The Batman Forever we all wound up with turned out to be a smash hit, if not a critical darling. It was quite the departure from Burton's Batman Returns and essentially accomplished what Warner Bros. wanted. Over $336 million at the global box office against only a $100 million budget.
I actually remember Forever sticking out most among the Bat flicks when I was growing up, prior to Batman Begins. Wasn't as aware of the camp and corniness at a more impressionable age.
So much chaos happens in the movie as is. When you look past some of the funny business, it's genuinely entertaining. Jim Carrey hams it up as The Riddler, Tommy Lee Jones tries to out-ham him as Two-Face, Nicole Kidman is this sort of strange noir-style femme fatale…Drew Barrymore is there, too! Then of course Val Kilmer as Batman and Chris O'Donnell as Robin. They actually had good chemistry and the scene where the Flying Graysons fall to their death is a legit emotional gut punch.
If this Schumacher cut comes out, we'll be getting about 50 more minutes of movie, which could add a lot of dramatic weight and make for a richer viewing experience. Among the deleted scenes that have been revealed, this one with Kilmer and Michael Gough's Alfred in the Batcave stands out (kinda awkward without any backing musical score but Val kills it here):
Kilmer is such a damn good actor and although he played off the Bruce Wayne swagger pretty well, he didn't have a ton to do. The story didn't really get into his head as much as it could have. He was a brand-new Batman succeeding Michael Keaton, yet the plot just kinda zips around and a lot of the focus is on Carrey's Riddler. I didn't mind that. It's just, if anyone is going to benefit most from Schumacher's cut emerging from the vault, it's definitely Val Kilmer.
There's a whole #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut movement that's gained steam in the style of the Snyder Cut of Justice League. I suspect the new brass at Warner Bros. Discovery likes money and subscription numbers. I feel like the Schumacher Cut of Batman Forever will add so much footage, context, and complexity to an otherwise turn-your-brain-off-for-the-most-part blockbuster. It's worth releasing.
At this point now that Smith is teasing the general public about getting an actual, WB-sanctioned hard copy of it, I'll be upset if it doesn't see the light of day.
Here's a little more background on the Batman Forever director's cut:
This whole thing may just be a curio for me and the other diehard DC stans, but then again, I feel like this movie was such a fixture in pop culture during the mid-90s and drew huge audiences at movie theaters. Definitely one of the more bizarre big-screen Bat adaptations, and I think part of why it's sort of tonally all over the place is the competing visions of Joel Schumacher and the executives at the time.
I'm for sure in the #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut camp. There's a pretty big campaign for a director's cut of David Ayer's Suicide Squad, which was notoriously hacked to pieces and taken out of his hands before it hit theaters. DC Studios co-chief James Gunn doesn't strike me as someone who'd be weird about the fact that he made his own The Suicide Squad and would therefore not allow the Ayer Cut to drop. Maybe we'll see that someday, too. For now, I'm just hyped that this Schumacher Cut is perhaps getting closer to an official release.